kipwinger

But didn't he go to Michigan? Lol. I thought they hold their student athletes to a higher standard? He and Frank Clark are shining examples of what being a "Michigan Man" is all about!

Yikes! I realize that professional athletes are mostly dumb. And Jack Johnson has never seemed too awful bright, even by those standards. But surely, somewhere along the way, he must have though "I wonder if I should hire a reputable financial advisor?". If he didn't, then he probably doesn't deserve the money anyway.

Here's an interesting tidbit I just ran across in a Khan article about Nestrasil... "[Nestrasil] would have been buried further down the depth chart once Pavel Datsyuk and Weiss return from injuries and after the club promotes top prospect Anthony Mantha, which it will likely do if he produces in the AHL the next few weeks." The bolded part is interesting because until very recently Khan had repeatedly taken the stance that as a result of his injury (and lost training camp), it would be unlikely that Mantha would crack Detroit's roster this season. This sounds almost definitive. As in, someone told Khan (off the record) that he'll be promoted if he plays well out of the game. Usually Khan's good about acknowledging when he's speculating. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

Look how long it's taking Helm to get back into his former playing shape after missing so much time. Khan just did an article on it the other day where he quoted Babs as saying something to the effect of "he's barely played for two seasons, it's going to take him a while to get back into form". Now apply the EXACT same thing to Weiss. Only make it more complicated because he's learning a new system, has a coach that doesn't think he's "earned anything", and he's often asked to play the wing (which he already stated he hasn't done since he was a child). Yeah, I'd imagine it will take a little while. Well, that or he sucks and wants to sit back and collect money. Weiss sucks! Weisps Sux! Werps Sercks! Wasps stung! Durka dur!

You're advocating holding a guy out of the remainder of the game, for a cut on his hand, because there's a possibility of infection? Can you even think of another time in the last 20 years that a player missed a game due to an infected cut on their hand? That's how unlikely, and flukey, this injury is. To suggest that someone ought to know better (regardless of the score) displays magnificent foresight, hindsight, or (more likely) both. Athletes want to play. Coaches want them to play. They're not going to sit out for something so unlikely. Can you imagine how deep in Babs' doghouse Smith would be if he sat out the rest of the game because "maybe his hand could get an infection"? Babs' would ******* lose it.

Why does there seem to be some sort of weird, pathalogical, need to assign blame to each and every little thing that happens to this team? Smith went back out because he wanted to play, the coach probably wanted him to play, and the folks signing his checks want him to play. A cut on his hand is a minor injury. The kind that hockey players sustain CONSTANTLY throughout a season. Think about all the times that you see blood in the course of a hockey season. All of those are cuts, and all of those have the potential to get infected. Most don't. This one did. It's not anyone's fault. It just happened.

As long as he's scoring I can overlook the turnovers and occasional blown coverage. That's what he was drafted to do. But if he's doing the latter and none of the former, I lose my patience pretty quickly with Riley's brother. Sucks that he's out though, he's been earning his keep lately.

Take a bath Nick Foligno...geesh! Seriously though, tough break. Smith's been looking real good the last five or six games. Hope it's just a minor setback. If only Brain McGrattan were the Red Wings GM, am I right?

Nevermind, I just watched it again. His nose is fine, his stupid mustache just made it look like he was bleeding lol. Can Movember be over already?

No. Weiss still needs to be on the Red Wings roster to do his conditioning assignment. In order to activate him from IR they need the spot and the cap space, as both will still count against the Wings while he's in GR. Since they started the season with Datsyuk (and then Franzen) on IR they didn't need to send Nestrasil back down, but now that Weiss is healthy they need his spot. They'll likely just play with one fewer guy in the press box for the game (or two) that Weiss is in GR. There really is no big secret here. Nestrasil waived, and Weiss activated after Nestrasil clears.

I don't know about Ericsson, but didn't Smith get his nose broken last night?

Probably should have done this about three weeks ago. The kid is clearly not ready to play NHL hockey. He works hard, and has some positives in his game, but a year ago he was only a mediocre AHL player. Excepting him to be a decent NHL player is too much at this point in his career.

Or we could turn around and fall flat like we did after the "confidence building" Chicago win. I'm VERY interested in how this team responds next game, and think that it will say a lot about the group in general. Can they build off a strong performance, or will they continue to be plagued by inconsistency? And in either event, what implications does it have for the roster moving forward?

Good game by all the kids. Tatar, Sheahan, Jurco, Smith, Glendening, Nyquist. All of them looked mighty impressive.

I agree. I made the exact same points a page ago. Little late to the game on this one.

I'd move Helm (with package) to Winnipeg for what we need. The local kid going home angle would take the sting out of it for him, and they've got a lot we should want.

I agree with your sentiment, I mean, we're still a playoff caliber team and all. There's time to wait for sure. But the problem with the wait and see approach is that everyone else gets older. Which would be fine if our best players were Patrick Kane or Sidney Crosby. But they aren't. Our best players are 33-36 years old. Even if Mantha and Pulks and one or two of the kid defensemen turn into something special, they're not going to do it as rookies. They're going to do it in 2 or 3 years when Dats is cooling his heals in Russia and Zetterberg's a cripple. That's not true, he'll sit on his prospects. Move a few of them onto the big club and lose a few to the cap crunch. And if we win a cup with Nyquist and Mantha...even if it's 10 years from now, everyone will gush over what a genius he is. "Because sometimes the best move is the one you don't make".

Touche. You totally had me reeling on that one. To be fair, he won't trade for them either.

Good call. Not surprised that you think the best way to improve our offense is to "go hard" after a defensive defenseman whose career high is 23 points. Because we clearly don't already have that in Dekeyser. This thread is about producing more points. Boychuk, regardless of his other talents, isn't going to contribute to that in any way. So maybe you can "go hard" over Boychuk in a more appropriate thread...or in the privacy of your own home? Agreed. I though you were suggesting he wasn't living up to expectations. Yeah, he's not a top six winger...yet. Ken Holland? Ken Holland the Red Wings GM? Will sign these guys in the offseason? The hockey offseason? No he won't.

I completely agree with you about the diversity of our attack, but I don't really get the Tatar knock. He's on track to score 20-25 goals this year. I'm not sure what people are expecting out of a third line winger. He's doing his job just fine.

Go to Cobo Joe's if you want to see firebreathing hotties, not collegial hockey talk lol.

Who knows, he's a UFA after this year. But I think Winnipeg would be stupid not to wait until the deadline. They may end up as a playoff team and decide not to trade anyway, but if they do he'll go for a lot. He's a great player, good leader, and the kind of guy that you win with in the playoffs. I think it would take a lot to get him. Not an outrageous amount, but a lot.

I also think that the "type" of scoring winger matters as well. I don't want another guy who plays the exact same way as the guys we've already got. A power forward type (Stafford, Ladd) or pure goal scorer (Semin) would be preferable to another two way guy that's good for 50 pts. (mostly assists). I think we really need to diversify our offensive attack.

That's what he said. But what else is he going to say? So it's hard to put much stock into pronouncements like that. That said, Abby's been far from our biggest issue so far. And I thought he would be. I was wrong about that, but I do question anyone lamenting his play thus far. To me, there's a couple things we've got to do to score goals. DEFINITELY need to get an offensive defenseman with a dynamic skill set. Pay whatever you need to get someone like Green or Yandle. Don't cheap out. Secondly, we need two real top six centers who are healthy. If those are going to be Datsyuk and Zetterberg, then go find another winger. If Z is going to play the wing, go find a center. In today's league it's easier to find a winger than a top flight center, so I'd probably move Z to center for the remainder of the season...but that's risky because he and Dats are injury prone and older. So it's not a good strategy long term. Probably should have traded for Spezza, Kesler, O'Reilly, or signed Stastny when we could. Alas hindsight.

Yeah, Dekeyser is really not cut out for powerplay duty.